Label
The Darkroom
1938
Donated by Ray Neal, 2005
For those who don’t believe that text-based signs can be considered “art,” the Museum of Neon Art presents The Darkroom. Stunning in its Art Deco simplicity and shocking with a face of reflective stainless steel, this incredible piece of Los Angeles history was thought to be lost for over 30 years.
When Ray Neal donated The Darkroom sign to the museum, its provenance was immediately apparent. The sign was once attached to the Historic Cultural Monument façade of The Darkroom camera supply shop in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile district. The programmatic storefront for the camera shop was designed to look like a giant camera in black vitriolite. The famous Wilshire Boulevard façade was given protective historic status, but the associated neon signs were not protected and later thrown away as the building’s tenants changed. For decades, The Darkroom’s neon sign was considered lost, but no one knew the letters had been picked from a dumpster by Ray Neal and saved. Stored in a garage for decades, the sign was donated to the Museum of Neon Art which renovated the sign with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The missing letter K was recreated based on historic photographs during the sign’s restoration.